Posted By Sarah On April 29, 2011 @ 3:53 pm In News Update | No Comments

Bing announced yesterday that they are unveiling a new and improved user interface for Bing shoppers. With an enhanced homepage and product results page, shopping on Bing is now a much more dynamic experience that feels more like a catalog than a search engine.

Let’s first take a look at Bing’s new Shopping homepage.­­

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As a shopper, the new homepage feels much more intuitive than searching for products by standard search engines means, although I can certainly do that here as well. By creating seasonally-relevant ad links at the top of the homepage, I can easily find suggestions, not to mention the potential advertising power for me as an e-commerce business owner if my product shows up on one of these pages. Each article includes links to related product categories:

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Search results pages now also display larger product images, and you can now refine your search by inserting your own price to match if you’re looking to spend a specific amount. When you hover over a product, you get a pop-up window with additional product information. Furthermore, any shopping lists you create can easily be shared with your friends on Facebook.

What does this means for your e-commerce SEO efforts? Take the time to optimize your product photos, as they will be very dominantly displayed in the new Bing interface. Having good quality photos and descriptions will be important to give users the most incentive to choose your product over others. Optimize your product listings with as much detail as possible. Also do your homework and make sure your prices are competitive. A searcher in Bing won’t actually know what site they’re being taken to when they’re ready to complete a purchase until after they’ve clicked a generic “Go to store” button (see image below), so you can’t bank on shopper loyalty to make up for things like higher prices or lower quality listings.

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Bing’s new shopping interface seems to level the playing field to the product level, so your product listings will need to be able to stand alone, unbranded to your business or site, in searches. All in all, I think Bing’s update creates a very nice experience for one’s target consumers, and I’m curious to see how these updates effect shopping trends across other search engines. I will definitely be paying more attention to my e-commerce clients in Bing!

What do you think of Bing’s new shopping interface? Do you see it as more or less intuitive than other search engine shopping platforms? Will you be more inclined to pay attention to your e-commerce results on Bing because of these updates? Let us know in the comments below!

Sarah is an Account Executive at Hanapin Marketing[4], a search engine marketing firm focused on generating results through PPC and SEO.